Debbie Aguilar’s husband, Roberto, had a major stroke that paralyzed his right side and rendered his speech almost unintelligible. It happened during the pandemic, so she was allowed in the skilled nursing home only one day for training before he was sent home. “Life turned upside down. My husband used to do everything,” she said. ...
Despite bad knees and respiratory problems that take her “forever to do things,” Jay Duchene admits, she is “not good at asking for help.” The retired nurse, now 86, has asked neighbors for an occasional ride, but trips to the doctors wait until one of her three daughters – two on the East Coast and ...
Searching for a way to stay in touch with friends after retirement, Ralph Pujolar and his college roommate started a walking group. They called it the Aloha Walkers, he said, “because my wife was born and raised in Honolulu, and I was always saying ‘Aloha’ when greeting someone.” The idea caught on. People heard about ...
Because of its importance – and continuing concern – Senior Beat has decided to re-publish in whole this series produced last May by staff writers Mary Hunt and Judy Goddess. Their stories look at a complex health-care system that leaves most middle-income seniors on their own for in-home help affordable only for the wealthy and ...
Dexter Garnier was in the habit of checking on his friend and former landlord, 76-year-old Frank Brown. So when he didn’t return his calls, Garnier went to Brown’s Dolores Heights home and knocked on the door. When there was no answer, he let himself in with the key Brown had given him and looked around. ...
Through college and grad school, I successfully avoided science courses. I took only two: astronomy and natural history, which my husband called “Our Friend, Mr. Sun,” and “The Chicken: A Natural History.” When he met me, I was 32, and he was incredulous I’d survived that long, given my complete lack of understanding of how ...
